1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to testing the quality of IP routes. The present invention also relates to testing the quality of IP routes announced to an IP traffic exchange by a member of the IP exchange, the IP exchange allowing online trading of IP capacity.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet is a worldwide network of interconnected networks. Each individual host connected to the internet has an IP address. To send a data packet from one host to another, the data packet must be routed through the Internet. To accomplish this, each host includes a routing table which the host uses to determine which physical interface address to use for sending the data. When a host receives a data packet, the data packet is either intended for that host or intended for another host. When the latter occurs, the host retransmits the packet using its own route table. Route tables are based on static rules or dynamic rules via routing protocols. Accordingly, the quality of the route depends on the quality of each host that the packet passes through and the network elements that connect the hosts. It would be useful to know the quality level of each particular host along a route so that packets requiring a higher quality could be routed using hosts having a high quality.
Some individual quality indicators such as, for example, latency, availability, packet loss may be determined for certain routes on the Internet. However, the best route for one application may be the route with the best latency characteristics, while the best route for another application may require the best packet loss characteristic. Therefore, a comprehensive quality indicator for hosts or end points on the Internet is required which can be used for determining the best route for various different service types.